Chinese Food at Pearl River, in the tune of Gluten Free!

Amanda and I recently met up with a small handful of people from the Celiac community here in Edmonton.  It is kind of like a gluten free dinner club.  We've gotten together for dinner several times at Louisianna Purchase, Britts Fish and Chips, and most recently at Pearl River Restaurant in the south Edmonton for gluten free Chinese food.  This visit was kind of the meeting of the bloggers, it was us from Gluten Free Edmonton, Monica from Tasty and Gluten Free, Sherri from High on Life and Gluten Free and Dani who works at Kinnikinnick plus everyones +1

Laughing it up and chowing down at Pearl River

Amanda and I have eaten there before with her family.  To be honest we have always liked the food, but Amanda has sometimes been weary because of the language barrier with the wait staff.  Although, there is a pretty good understanding of Celiac disease and the gluten free diet.

This past visit was by far the best.  It might have been because they know the whole table was going to eat gluten free.  Yes even myself and one of the other partners were going to eat gluten free.  It really does just make things less complicated.  The gentlemen that seems to be the owner, was sure to come by our table several times, before the waiter and during the meal, to talk with us, recommend some gluten free menu items and explain why they are gluten free.  He came by during the meals to make sure everything was tasting good and too our liking.

It didn't take long for the eight of us to decide to order family style because we all wanted to try as much as we could.  We were told that many items can be made gluten free, or are already gluten free except the obvious like spring rolls, wontons, battered lemon chicken etc.  But there were still plenty of options.  We ordered something like 8 dishes, that I will try to ring off the top of my head:

• Paradise Shrimp, coated with potato flour, pan fried and served in a mayo and curry sauce.  Don't turn your nose up from it before your try it, because this was the best dish at the table.  We actually had a double order of it.
• Beef and Brocolli and Beef and snow peas - Both great and fantastic
• Beef in black bean sauce.  Also quite taste
• Chicken in a birds nest.  The birds nest is made of shredded potato that is fried, so good!
• Sizzling rice in tomato sauce.  This was clumps of deep fried rice that is served, and then a broth of tomato sauce poured over it to cause it to sizzle on the spot.  That was hit and miss depending on who you spoke too.
• Pepper Shrimp. Can't remember the exact name of this one, but it was spicy and coated with potato flour and pan fried served with a small relish of onions and hot peppers.  Very tasty if you ask me!
• Steamed rice
• Oh ya, they brought out a bottle of VH soy sauce for the table too!

I can't remember if we had more than that or not.  Either way, it filled us all up!  There was even a bit left over, and the bill only came out to $125 for the eight of us to eat.

So just a warning on a couple of these menu items mentioned above.  The nest, and the sizzling rice might be deep fried.  No one really asked (which surprised me) about how it is fried, and no one got sick at the table, and no word of anyone getting sick thus far (a few days later).  So even if it was deep fried, might be dedicated fryers for that.

Needless to say, we were not disappointed at all with the meal.  Was nice to have traditional Chinese Food, and Amanda to be able to eat it.

Gluten Free Edmonton - A Celiac guide and resource for gluten free information in Edmonton, Alberta